Furnace.



No. 659,596. Patentd Oct 9, I900.- n. E. sm'm.

FURNACE.

(Application filed Oct. 30, 1899.)

(No Model.)

W u llllllmmlm a l VI'T/VSSSES L VVEIVTOR I I I l I W Aim/nay,

rrnn STATES DAVID E. SMITH, OF OSWAYO, PENNSYLVANIA.

FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 659,596, dated October 9, 1900.

7 Application filed October 30, 1899. Serial No- 735,305. (No model.)

To ctZZ lull/0777i it ntoty concern:

Be it known that 1, DAVID E. SMITH, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Oswayo, in the countyot' Potter and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in furnaces, and more particularly to that class of furnaces or burners in which fine fuelsuch as tanbark, sawdust, culm, bagasse, and the like-is burned as a fuel, the primary object being to insure and attain greater intensity of heat, to utilize and consume waste material as fuel, and prevent too great accumulation of fuel in the furnace. I-Ieretofore furnaces of this type employing an arched masonry wall have been provided with a sectional feed-pot of fire-clay or other refractory material in the top through which the fuel was fed to the grate. These feedpots have invariably dropped to a point in the wall flush with its inner surface nearly. A common type of this form of furnace and feed-pot is shown in the Thompson patent, and the objection to this construction has been that the fuel filled the combustionchamber of the furnace too full and was too high at its edges upon the grate, so that combustion was very imperfect in consequence thereof. 7

Another object of my invention is to obviate this objection and to provide means for preventing too great an accumulation of fuel upon the grate and to insure its rising upon the edges of the pile of burning fuel a predetermined depth, so that the fire is not choked by an excess of fuel at that point, and at the same time adequate space is left above the fuel for the escape of products of combustion.

With the foregoing object in View my invention consists of a feed-pot made of firebrick or similar refractory material adapted to be inserted in the center of the arch of the furnace, where it acts as a keystone and of sufficient length to extend down into the combustion-chamber of the furnace far enough to regulate the accumulation of fuel upon the grate.

My invention further consists in certain novel features of constructions and combinations of parts, which will be more fully described hereinafter, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a vertical sectional view. Fig. 2 is a section taken at right angles thereto, and Fig. 3 is a detached view of the feed-pot.

The furnace is the usual type or, as previously mentioned, similar to the well-known Thompson furnace used in tanneries, where the consumption of the wet granular tanbark as a fuel is an object, and a very brief reference to its leading features will suffice.

A is the outer wall of masonry or suitable material, having a smoke-outlet a.

B is the arch of fire-brick or refractory substance employed for such purposes, and O is the grate. of nine inches or thereabout above the grate, it being vertical from that point to the grate, as is common in furnaces of this type. Above the arch a filling of sand or like substance is placed. In the center of thearch is placed my improved feed pot. This is preferably made of the accustomed four sections and of fire-brick or equivalent refractory material, for the reason that its location is at the very center of the intensest heat. Instead of terminating flush with the wall of the combus tion-chamber this pot extends down into the latter a distance of about nine inches or approximately to a depth equal to the height of the vertical side portion of the wall of the combustion-chamber. The result is an even distribution of fuel and an automatic regulation of its depth at all times upon the edges of the grate which never rises above a point where it can be perfectly and economically consumed. Also a space of ample area always intervenes between the surface of the fuel-pile and the walls of the arch for the'escape of the products of combustion. The result is an absolute consumption of the waste material used as fuel and the creation of an intense heat and above all an entire saving of additional fuel, such as coal or gas, which hitherto has been necessary in the utilization of this waste material as fuel.

The arch starts from an elevation I am aware of the so-called cylinder feed employed in ordinary stoves and furnaces,

the primary object of which is merely to sup- I do not wish to limit myself to the exact conply fuel automatically as combustion takes place. This is not my object and such stoves and furnaces could not be adapted to the purposes of the present invention. My feed-pot is in no sense a feed-cylinder as such. It is merely an inlet for fuel, which ordinarily is wet, as is always the case with tanbark, and has to be forced into the furnace. It is likewise true, as I am aware, that these supplycylinders in ordinary stoves and furnaces are constructed of metal, as that is altogether adequate to withstand the heat which it is possible ever to generate in a stove or furnace for ordinary heating purposes; but in my invention no such cylinder would serve the purpose, as I have experimented with metal pipes without success. Fire-clay only or the most refractory material of equivalent character will sufiice to withstand the intensity of the heat, in the very center of which this feed-pot must necessarily be located, with its entire protruding portion exposed to the full blast of the heat at all times. 7

It is evident that slight changes might be made in the details, dimensions, and proportions specified without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and hence struction herein set forth; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with the arch and grate of a furnace, of a feed-pot depending thereinto a suitable distance to prevent the accumulation of fuel at the sides of the grate, said feed-pot constituting a keystone for the arch and insuring an adequate space proportioned to its length inside of the arch between the arch and the fuel for the easy escape of the products of combustion.

2. The combination with the arch and grate of a furnace, of a feed-pot depending thereinto a suitable distance to prevent the accumulation of fuel at the sides of the grate, said feed-pot composed of fire-brick and made in sections and constituting a keystone for the arch and insuring an adequate space proportioned to its length inside of the arch between the arch aud the fuel for the easy escape of the products of combustion.

- DAVID E. SMITH.

In presence of VERNON E. HODGES, RALPH S. WARFIELD. 

